By Ethan Hartley

A 2025 graduate of East Providence High School has joined an exclusive cohort of just 161 total high school grads from across the nation, as Ty Messier was recently announced as being selected as a 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholar by the U.S. Department of Education.

Messier, who was announced as one of 621 semifinalists among 6,400 eligible candidates in the country in the spring, learned in late September that he had been one of the few selected for the honors.

“It felt surreal when I first got it,” he said in a recent interview. “I’m the first first person from East Providence to ever get it in the history of the award, which was insane to hear.”

According to a press release from the Department of Education, the U.S. Presidential Scholar program was created in 1964 an

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